Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Winning GE13 convincingly, by jailing political foes a year later?

Winning GE13 convincingly, by jailing political foes a year later?

COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDERMay 05, 2014

Prime
Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak with United States President Barack
Obama. Najib had boasted about his reformist credentials during Obama’s
visit to Malaysia two weeks ago. – AFP pic, May 5, 2014.
One year after the Barisan Nasional (BN) won the 13th
general election (GE13) with fewer votes and fewer seats, more
lawmakers from the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) find themselves at the
wrong end of the law and risking jail time.

Tomorrow, Seputeh MP Teresa Kok will be charged with sedition, weeks
after the late Karpal Singh was convicted of the same charge.

Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim faces the possibility of
jail for a second sodomy conviction while his PKR party colleague Nik
Nazmi Nik Ahmad is expected to charged again under the Peaceful Assembly
Act.

Just two weeks ago, the Court of Appeal had declared Section 9(5) of
the Peaceful Assembly Act – which criminalises the failure to give
10-day notice before a gathering – to be unconstitutional.

And in July 2012, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced that
the Sedition Act will be repealed and replaced by a National Harmony
Act. That has yet to take place and instead, more people have been
charged with sedition.

Will Malaysians, or the 51% of the electorate who voted for PR in GE13,
stand on the sidelines as disinterested watchers as their elected reps
are picked off one by one by an administration that obviously thinks the
only way to win is by making the opposition "disappear"?

And this from a PM who was boasting about his reformist credentials
during United States President Barack Obama's visit to Malaysia two
weeks ago.

Can the government say that this is an independent decision of the
public prosecutor, knowing full that even a standard operational
procedure as searching the sea for a lost plane needs Putrajaya's
approval.

Or is the public prosecutor's push to charge Kok with sedition over her
“Onederful Malaysia” Chinese New Year clip and Nik Nazmi for an
offence under a law now deemed unconstitutional shows recalcitrance on
his part?

The reality is that the buck stops with the prime minister. Even
research and development projects appear to need his approval or
endorsement.

What more prosecuting politicians in court.

It might be another four years to the next polls but the systemic move
to remove popular PR leaders shows an administration that has abandoned
its reformist zeal and stripes in favour of the old playbook of
intimidation and incarceration.

How else can BN win an election, if not by physically removing its foes
from the political arena using archaic laws such as the Sedition Act?

Where does this leave Malaysians who were asked to believe in the
1Malaysia slogan and a prime minister who had proudly declared "the era
of government knows best is over" when he took office in 2009?

It leaves them nowhere except to find ways to remind the government
that it is the people who keep them in power, and it is the people who
will unseat any government that fails to keep its promises. – May 5,
2014.